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Life Before Social Security

From Richard Paul | 00:07:03
Producers: Richard Paul

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A look a life for the elderly in the years before Social Security was created

Although today’s Social Security debate is all about the program’s future, there are partisans on both sides who have bolstered their arguments by evoking the past.

Supporters of private accounts speak of a time when American’s controlled their own financial decisions. Without interference from the government. Opponents point to the bleak conditions of the Great Depression and warn that changes will take us back.

These calls tend to be long on nostalgia and short on factual information. So producer Richard Paul decided to take a look back at what financial conditions were actually like for retired people in the years before Social Security. He found some things you know and a quite a few you probably don’t.
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Although today’s Social Security debate is all about the program’s future, there are partisans on both sides who have bolstered their arguments by evoking the past. Supporters of private accounts speak of a time when American’s controlled their own financial decisions. Without interference from the government. Opponents point to the bleak conditions of the Great Depression and warn that changes will take us back. These calls tend to be long on nostalgia and short on factual information. So producer Richard Paul decided to take a look back at what financial conditions were actually like for retired people in the years befor...
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Broadcast History

Aired on NPR's "Morning Edition" on March 30, 2005.

Transcript

HOST INTRO: Most of the discussion regarding Social Security has focused on how it might function decades from now. The shrinking ratio of workers to retirees is expected to have a dramatic effect on the system's finances. President Bush insists current workers will be better off if they invest in private Social Security accounts. And yet the system's origins are probably as murky for many people as its future. Producer Richard Paul takes a look at what financial conditions were actually like for retired people in the years before Social Security.
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In 1921, when Helen Borut (BORE it) was 10, she went through a jarring change of routine. Her grandmother came to live in her family’s tiny apartment in the Bronx.

[HELEN: We shared a room and she was always cold and we always had to keep the window close (laughs).]

The change in lifestyle...
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Timing and Cues

In: In 1921, when Helen Borut
OQ: I'm Richard Paul in Washington

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